THE Bible tells us that men became so bad that God destroyed them all
with the exception of eight persons; that afterwards he chose Abraham
and some of his kindred, a wandering tribe, for the purpose of seeing
whether or no they could be civilized. He had no time to waste with all
the world. The Egyptians at that time, a vast and splendid nation,
having a system of laws and free schools, believing in the marriage of
the one man to the one woman; believing, too, in the rights of woman--a
nation that had courts of justice and understood the philosophy of
damages--these people had received no revelation from God,--they were
left to grope in Nature's night. He had no time to civilize India,
wherein had grown a civilization that fills the world with wonder
still--a people with a language as perfect as ours, a people who had
produced philosophers, scientists, poets. He had no time to waste on
them; but he took a few, the tribe of Abraham. He established a perfect
despotism--with no schools, with no philosophy, with no art, with no
music--nothing but the sacrifices of dumb beasts--nothing but the abject
worship of a slave. Not a word upon geology, upon astronomy; nothing,
even, upon the science of medicine. Thus God spent hours and hours with
Moses upon the top of Sinai, giving directions for ascertaining the
presence of leprosy and for preventing its spread, but it never occurred
to Jehovah to tell Moses how it could be cured. He told them a few
things about what they might eat--prohibiting among other things
four-footed birds, and one thing upon the subject of cooking. From the
thunders and lightnings of Sinai he proclaimed this vast and wonderful
fact: "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk." He took these
people, according to our sacred Scriptures, under his immediate care,
and for the purpose of controlling them he wrought wonderful miracles in
their sight.
Is it not a little curious that no priest of one religion has ever been
able to astonish a priest of another religion by telling a miracle? Our
missionaries tell the Hindoos the miracles of the Bible, and the Hindoo
priests, without the movement of a muscle, hear them and then recite
theirs, and theirs do not astonish our missionaries in the least! Is it
not a little curious that the priests of one religion never believe the
priests of another? Is it not a little strange that the believers
in sacred books regard all except their own as having been made by
hypocrites and fools?
I heard the other day a story. A gentleman was telling some wonderful
things and the listeners, with one exception, were saying, as he
proceeded with his tale, "Is it possible?" "Did you ever hear anything
so wonderful?" and when he had concluded, there was a kind of chorus
of "Is it possible?" and "Can it be?" One man, however, sat perfectly
quiet, utterly unmoved. Another listener said to him "Did you hear
that?" and he replied "Yes." "Well," said the other, "You did not
manifest much astonishment." "Oh, no," was the answer, "I am a liar
myself."
I am told by the sacred Scriptures that, as a matter of fact, God, even
with the help of miracles, failed to civilize the Jews, and this shows
of how little real benefit, after all, it is, to have a ruler much above
the people, or to simply excite the wonder of mankind. Infinite wisdom,
if the account be true, could not civilize a single tribe. Laws made by
Jehovah himself were not obeyed, and every effort of Jehovah failed.
It is claimed that God made known his law and inspired men to write
and teach his will, and yet, it was found utterly impossible to reform
mankind.